It cost my friend roughly $800 - I'm assuming this doesn't include sales tax. My friend then continued on to buy a replacement video card, the AMD 7770 and an unknown corsair 700W power supply.

The bottom line: I was trying to convince my friend that with basically $900 she could assemble a much better PC herself. Can I get a little support here, I don't want her to get the short end of the stick as I've seen so many friends down that path, purchasing store bought PC's only to have it backfire in their face. All the items were bought in the last 24hrs so i'm thinking that returning everything shouldn't be a problem.

She mostly plays MMO's but would like her PC to be capable of running the most graphic intensive games out today at decent framerates.

For some unknown reason she thinks made a great purchase, I would like us to turn her from the dark side!

Does she know how to build her own PC? If not, will you help her?

It's not easy in any sense of the word unless you've built plenty before. I get annoyed by people who keep telling random people on the internet to build their own PCs. $900 is a huge investment and all that money goes into the trash if you break something.

Honestly, if you can't build a PC in the modern era, then I wouldn't recommend using one, either. You plug square pegs into squarr holes and round pegs into round holes. DONE!

Agreed

More or less its pretty easy. It is just a few things to know which one would consider common sense but obviously it is lacking in the modern world. Don't go trying to generate static by rubbing your feet across your carpet then attempt to put a PC together. Don't use brute force, it is rarely needed except when trying to get certain heatsinks to sit right.

Watch a youtube video on how to put a PC together or even use one of neweggs videos, they're usually pretty good at showing idiots putting pc's together.

The hardest part in getting a standard pc put together these days is cable management and sometimes front panel plug ins.

Is it common sense to use spacers when mounting the motherboard to the side of the case?

It cost my friend roughly $800 - I'm assuming this doesn't include sales tax. My friend then continued on to buy a replacement video card, the AMD 7770 and an unknown corsair 700W power supply.

The bottom line: I was trying to convince my friend that with basically $900 she could assemble a much better PC herself. Can I get a little support here, I don't want her to get the short end of the stick as I've seen so many friends down that path, purchasing store bought PC's only to have it backfire in their face. All the items were bought in the last 24hrs so i'm thinking that returning everything shouldn't be a problem.

She mostly plays MMO's but would like her PC to be capable of running the most graphic intensive games out today at decent framerates.

For some unknown reason she thinks made a great purchase, I would like us to turn her from the dark side!

Does she know how to build her own PC? If not, will you help her?

It's not easy in any sense of the word unless you've built plenty before. I get annoyed by people who keep telling random people on the internet to build their own PCs. $900 is a huge investment and all that money goes into the trash if you break something.

Honestly, if you can't build a PC in the modern era, then I wouldn't recommend using one, either. You plug square pegs into squarr holes and round pegs into round holes. DONE!

Agreed

More or less its pretty easy. It is just a few things to know which one would consider common sense but obviously it is lacking in the modern world. Don't go trying to generate static by rubbing your feet across your carpet then attempt to put a PC together. Don't use brute force, it is rarely needed except when trying to get certain heatsinks to sit right.

Watch a youtube video on how to put a PC together or even use one of neweggs videos, they're usually pretty good at showing idiots putting pc's together.

The hardest part in getting a standard pc put together these days is cable management and sometimes front panel plug ins.

Is it common sense to use spacers when mounting the motherboard to the side of the case?

It is common sense to follow the instructions when you don't know what you're doing.

If for whatever reason the PC doesn't power up then they can come ask this forum or one of the 100s of helpful tech forums for assistance. Either way the op is the friend of the person who is buying a store bought, It is assumed he would help with the assembly.

Right...

If you don't know what you're doing, building a PC can be a massive pain in the ass. Of course, if you wanna learn, the best way is to just jump in and try, but if you just want a working machine, pay a little extra and have it built by professionals.

It cost my friend roughly $800 - I'm assuming this doesn't include sales tax. My friend then continued on to buy a replacement video card, the AMD 7770 and an unknown corsair 700W power supply.

The bottom line: I was trying to convince my friend that with basically $900 she could assemble a much better PC herself. Can I get a little support here, I don't want her to get the short end of the stick as I've seen so many friends down that path, purchasing store bought PC's only to have it backfire in their face. All the items were bought in the last 24hrs so i'm thinking that returning everything shouldn't be a problem.

She mostly plays MMO's but would like her PC to be capable of running the most graphic intensive games out today at decent framerates.

For some unknown reason she thinks made a great purchase, I would like us to turn her from the dark side!

I build systems for a living selling custom builds and sales service and yeah she can get far far more for her money. I just upgraded my system with this and spent around 750 consider that they included all the big stuff and you get the picture. Heres what I bought and what it cost she her the list and she will realize how much more she could have had.

Sapphire 6950 video card added around 6 months ago blows the doors off the 7770 to put it in a frame of reference the 6950 2gb model is faster than the 7850 which destroys the card she bought.

AMD 8350 4 ghz 8 logical core proc

160 dollar mobo on sale for 100 gigabyte brand

32 gigs of quad channel gskill memory running at 1600

Corsair 400r case

and I bought a corsair 500 psu to go in my old build and moved my OCZ modular 700 watt to the new build.

If for whatever reason the PC doesn't power up then they can come ask this forum or one of the 100s of helpful tech forums for assistance. Either way the op is the friend of the person who is buying a store bought, It is assumed he would help with the assembly.

Right...

If you don't know what you're doing, building a PC can be a massive pain in the ass. Of course, if you wanna learn, the best way is to just jump in and try, but if you just want a working machine, pay a little extra and have it built by professionals.

It's not as easy as you and others make it sound to most people.

It's a matter of perspective...PC's today are much simpler to put together than they were 10 years ago.The ATX form factor helped a lot with that as well as other standards.no messing with jumper pins or trying to figure out which wires go where...it's farily simpel to connect the dots these days.However I agree that for someoen with no expereince at all starting can seem daunting.But I think anyone of average intelligence can figure it out quite quickly.

If for whatever reason the PC doesn't power up then they can come ask this forum or one of the 100s of helpful tech forums for assistance. Either way the op is the friend of the person who is buying a store bought, It is assumed he would help with the assembly.

Right...

If you don't know what you're doing, building a PC can be a massive pain in the ass. Of course, if you wanna learn, the best way is to just jump in and try, but if you just want a working machine, pay a little extra and have it built by professionals.

It's not as easy as you and others make it sound to most people.

If building a PC is beyond someones ability then you're right they need a built machine but any $300-400 machine will fit their needs.

For everyone else who needs something more then they know how to goto www.youtube.com and search DIY PC guides.

If for whatever reason the PC doesn't power up then they can come ask this forum or one of the 100s of helpful tech forums for assistance. Either way the op is the friend of the person who is buying a store bought, It is assumed he would help with the assembly.

Right...

If you don't know what you're doing, building a PC can be a massive pain in the ass. Of course, if you wanna learn, the best way is to just jump in and try, but if you just want a working machine, pay a little extra and have it built by professionals.

It's not as easy as you and others make it sound to most people.

If building a PC is beyond someones ability then you're right they need a built machine but any $300-400 machine will fit their needs.

For everyone else who needs something more then they know how to goto www.youtube.com and search DIY PC guides.

lol...

There are plenty of PC gamers out there who don't know how to build entire machines. That doesn't mean they're computer illiterate. They've probably at least shoved a few video cards or RAM sticks into their motherboard, but they may not have built a computer from the ground up.

Local computer shops and companies like Alienware and iBuyPower make plenty of money off of these people.

I'm not saying people shouldn't learn how to build their own PC. It's a valuable skill, but it's not as simple as you people are trying to make it sound. The devil is in the details. No, I doubt someone unfamiliar with building PCs knows anything about ESD, Corrosion, proper cooling, applying thermal paste, how big the power supply should be, or what brand, how to properly seat RAM, the differences in dual and triple channel, chosing a processor based on socket type on the motherboard. Even though plugging things into the motherboard has been made easier (what hasn't been made easier these days?), it'll still be a slow process for someone unfamiliar with building computers.

Then there's overclocking. People who don't know how to build computers probably don't even need to think about messing with overclocking, yet plenty of people think overclocking is some sort of a given when it comes to building a PC.

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Though it's not my intention to stir the pot so to speak I feel that one considering spending over $500 on a PC and are on the fence about should they have someone else build it because they currently don't know how or should they take the plunge and try it themselves consider this, how much do you make per hour at your job, or rather how valuable is your time?

The old saying holds true in that time is in fact money and if you earn more than the amount of time it would take you to learn how to build a computer (with proper studying this would take any reasonably intelligent person about a day’s worth of site searches/video tutorials) then paying someone else to do it is probably a good option. For everyone else (that meets the "reasonably intelligent" caveat) paying someone else to do it versus educating yourself is nothing short of lazy.

Or in other words:

"give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish..."

And in the rare case you attempt it and somehow fail you can THEN take it to a local computer shop and pay them to correct your mistake (assuming you didn't fry a part or it wasn't DOA, the former you really should have paid more attention to what you read about and in the case of the latter you have to accept this just happens and requires a RMA. Something even experienced builders can't avoid).

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A couple of years ago, I took the plunge/chance on ordering a custom built computer. I had always built my own prior to this. Things have gotten more complicated, though, at least during that time. I read horror stories of memory chips by brand name incompatible with certain motherboards, ordering components online only to have them dead on arrival and the difficulty of exchange/returing them. I priced components at my local electronics big box store and other local outlets and the cost at retail was too much even for my fairly extravagent budget.

I researched the various better known online custom build sites, user reviews on non-affilliated sites. Of course, it was confusing due to the praise and bitter detractions posted for every vendor. I finally narrowed down who I would order my system from... I was skeptical and feared my $'s would be lost. As for cost, customization, variety, I couldn't find one advertising better than AVA Direct (no, I don't work for them or even know these people). I also don't make any claims for or against them than my own experience and most certainly couldn't predict others'.

I'm still running the system today with only upgrading the OS, the video card and monitor. I couldn't have built my system for less by purchasing the components separately and assembling them myself. Customer service was top notch, at least in my circumstance. They made recommendations for different components that were more compatible and stable that didn't cost me extra. I received my system in the predicted timeframe. EVERYTHING WORKED during the initial bootup.

Regardless, do your homework... read reviews from 3rd parties on the components, vendors, etc., before you take the plunge. I find it hard to believe you could purchase components and asseble them yourself much cheaper than a custom builder due to their ability to buy in bulk. Your system will be tested and working at time of shipment.

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Originally posted by Dobuzinsky

A couple of years ago, I took the plunge/chance on ordering a custom built computer. I had always built my own prior to this. Things have gotten more complicated, though, at least during that time. I read horror stories of memory chips by brand name incompatible with certain motherboards, ordering components online only to have them dead on arrival and the difficulty of exchange/returing them. I priced components at my local electronics big box store and other local outlets and the cost at retail was too much even for my fairly extravagent budget.

I researched the various better known online custom build sites, user reviews on non-affilliated sites. Of course, it was confusing due to the praise and bitter detractions posted for every vendor. I finally narrowed down who I would order my system from... I was skeptical and feared my $'s would be lost. As for cost, customization, variety, I couldn't find one advertising better than AVA Direct (no, I don't work for them or even know these people). I also don't make any claims for or against them than my own experience and most certainly couldn't predict others'.

I'm still running the system today with only upgrading the OS, the video card and monitor. I couldn't have built my system for less by purchasing the components separately and assembling them myself. Customer service was top notch, at least in my circumstance. They made recommendations for different components that were more compatible and stable that didn't cost me extra. I received my system in the predicted timeframe. EVERYTHING WORKED during the initial bootup.

Regardless, do your homework... read reviews from 3rd parties on the components, vendors, etc., before you take the plunge. I find it hard to believe you could purchase components and asseble them yourself much cheaper than a custom builder due to their ability to buy in bulk. Your system will be tested and working at time of shipment.

In almost any situation you're going to be paying 10-20% more for a prebuilt unit. If you're finding its more expensive to build your own you're not looking hard enough for deals, combos or rebates. Its a matter of time vs dollar.